Students plan campus thrift store to tackle sustainability and basic needs

Green Campus and Thrift Cal Poly are teaming up in an effort to open a permanent thrift store on the Cal Poly campus.

No details have been finalized for this project yet. But, according to journalism junior and Thrift Cal Poly president Eve Stewart, they are eyeing the space that is currently being used as The Lounge in the University Union.

The organizations are hoping this space will be repurposed after the expected reopening of Kennedy Library in Fall of 2025. Currently, there is no set date as to when the thrift store plans to open.

Stewart expressed that the price range on items is expected to be affordable and accessible for all students. The store is planning to follow a low cost or no cost model, making some items free for students. Ideally, the thrift store would fulfill basic needs for students. 

“The store won’t be curated at all, the store will be completely donation based,” Stewart said. “Donations will come from pop-up clothing drives, in store donations, as well as items gathered from freshman dorm move out, assuming that the Cal Poly thrift program would be interested in collaborating with us.”

In the store, Stewart says people would be able to find a variety of different items.

“There will definitely be clothing for sale, as well as room decor, small furniture items like stools, and lamps and mirrors and things like that, as well as school supplies, like lab equipment, textbooks, pencils,” said Stewart.

Green Campus and Thrift Cal Poly are also hoping to collaborate with the professional clothing closet, an on-campus resource dedicated to providing people with second hand professional clothing. According to Stewart, this collaboration could also mean having more professional clothing and even graduation caps and gowns in their inventory. 

 “It’ll be mutually beneficial in that sense, the store will be run for free and in exchange the people running it will be receiving volunteer hours that make them eligible to be a part of their organizations,” Stewart said. 

Though the store aims to be mainly be donation-based, Stewart said that it could also be a way for artists to gain exposure for their work. 

“In the future we definitely hope to have a section of the store that’s sort of consignment style with vendors who have sustainably sourced or produced items like jewelry or crochet or ceramics, for example,” Stewart said.

According to environmental Earth and soil science senior and intern for Green Campus, Carina Ballek, the organization is expecting to bring an online selling and trading platform to the Cal Poly Portal.

“Starting probably spring or next year, we’ll have something called ‘Mustang Reuse’ as an option on the side panel on their portal,” Ballek said. “It kind of works like FaceBook Marketplace where you can go on there, post your items if you have one you want to give out, or even put up a request.”

According to Stewart, every single year in the United States, there is approximately 11.3 million tons of textile waste alone that ends up in our landfill.

“Not only would [the thrift store] help us meet basic needs goals for the university, but it would also help us meet sustainability goals,” Stewart said.